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Disasters - SERIES 66 {11 articles}

Emergency drills mark 95th anniversary of Kanto quake

9/1/2018, 9:22:27 AM
Drills were held around Tokyo and elsewhere in Japan on Sept. 1 to prepare for a disaster such as th ✔ In Yokosuka, Kanagawa Prefecture, 1,500 people who were selected from among applicants took part in a drill to flee from a tsunami at JR Yokosuka Station ✔ They descended from a train and evacuated to a nearby square at the instruction of train and station staff ✔ The foreigners helped others set up evacuation centers and extinguish a fire by a bucket brigade



California lawmakers pass bill on PG&E wildfire liability

9/1/2018, 8:05:47 AM
California's legislature passed a bill late on Friday that could help the utility Pacific Gas and Electric Corporation (PG&E) avoid potentially crippling liabilities for wildfires that ravaged northern parts of the San Francisco Bay Area last year. ✔ It would also let utilities issue bonds to help pay damages, with a surcharge on ratepayers’ bills helping to cover interest payments ✔ But Dodd, who led the legislation, has said another bankruptcy by PG&E could be worse for ratepayers than a surcharge on their bills ✔ Our Standards:The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles



Power companies can hike bills to cover wildfire lawsuit costs

9/1/2018, 9:42:32 AM
California energy company PG&E faces financial ruin otherwise, but a consumer group is angry, saying "everybody's getting protected, but customers". ✔ Lawmakers worry the costs to PG&E could be so severe that it would struggle to borrow money or would file for bankruptcy, which they fear would lead to even higher spikes in utility bills ✔ Our new podcast series from the team behind Phoebe's Fall View episodes



Ring of Fire: World to be struck by ‘at least FIVE major earthquakes’ by end of year

9/1/2018, 8:07:02 AM
THE Ring of Fire is likely to see several more earthquakes measuring in excess of 7.0 in magnitude before the end of 2018, a seismologist has warned as he stressed the awesome power of the “huge geological feature”. ✔ And he admitted he had been surprised by a cluster of tremors in northern Alaska this month centred on the North Slope region ✔ In addition, three reactors at the Fukushima Daichi Nuclear Power Plant went into meltdown, with hundreds of thousands of people evacuated ✔ The World Bank estimated the total cost to be more than £180billion, making it the most costly natural disaster in history



Terrifying moment Boeing 737 erupts in a fireball following crash landing in a storm - as all 170 on board flee inferno

9/1/2018, 8:29:06 AM
PASSENGERS and crew on a Boeing 737 had a miraculous escape today when the aircraft skidded off the runway and into a river in a crash landing then ignited in an inferno. Panicking passengers jumpe… ✔ She said: People were throwing children down from the wings, and catching them on the ground ✔ A criminal investigation has been opened into the emergency landing… on suspicion of inadequate services with a risk to clients’ health, said the southern transport department of Russia’s Investigative Committee ✔ Earlier today another UTair plane was forced to land on one engine in the Siberian city of Surgut



Koike again skips tribute to Koreans killed after 1923 quake

9/1/2018, 8:31:26 AM
Tokyo Gov Yuriko Koike failed to pay tribute at an annual ceremony commemorating Korean people murdered in the chaos that ensued after the 1923 Great Kanto Earthquake for the second straight year on Saturday, despite criticism from civic groups that organize the event. Instead, the governor sent a message of… ✔ Meanwhile, a report compiled by the national government's anti-disaster council in 2008 said those killed in the massacre account for 1 to several percent of those who died in the quake ✔ Last month, Koike told a press conference she decided against sending a message of condolences for the Korean victims last year because she meant to express her condolences for all victims of the earthquake in the larger ceremony ✔ Akishino is the name of his branch in the imperial family



Irish Tweeters To Donald Trump: You Are Not Welcome

9/1/2018, 9:59:28 AM
"That wasn't an earthquake in Ireland. It's just an expletive explosion as the nation hears that Trump is planning a visit." ✔ A warm Irish welcome will likely not be afforded to President Donald Trump when he visits the country in November ✔ We’ll march in every town and every village in Ireland in our thousands the day #Trump comes to Ireland ✔ We have a duty to mobilise against his visit to say his politics of hate and division has no place in Ireland



Climate change is going to make wildfires worse. Cutting trees and controlled burns can help

9/1/2018, 11:15:03 AM
The era of benign neglect of the state’s forests has to come to an end. ✔ Californians are already facing long fire seasons and record-setting blazes that have scorched the landscape and created clouds of soot ✔ The state released its fourth Climate Assessment late last month, making a research-based projection for how climate change is likely to alter the environment and what the state can do now to help avoid the worst impacts ✔ But as fires become more prevalent and intense, forests can become a net contributor to greenhouse gas emissions



A teachers strike is what the LAUSD will get for not respecting educators

9/1/2018, 11:15:07 AM
One LAUSD teacher explains that the district is forcing her and her colleagues to strike if it fails to pay them more and improve their working conditions. ✔ Both my daughters attended magnets and enjoyed the unique programs that required qualified instructors to teach challenging coursework ✔ Neither side is to blame for this impasse, as this is a case of Proposition 13 coming home to roost ✔ I don’t ever see homeowners voting to take away their sacred tax savings



Why Syria's last battleground could be its deadliest yet

9/1/2018, 8:25:52 AM
The Syrian regime has clawed back control of much of the country over the past few years: the city of Homs, the great prize of Aleppo, the countryside around Damascus and most recently the birthplace of the uprising: Daraa. ✔ MUST WATCH Russia's master plan in Syria 02:42 (CNN)The Syrian regime has clawed back control of much of the country over the past few years: the city of Homs, the great prize of Aleppo, the countryside around Damascus and most recently the birthplace of the uprising: Daraa ✔ So far there are no takers, although one activist noted that militant groups were being offered a stark choice: merge or die



John McCain was complex. His legacy warrants critical discussion

9/1/2018, 10:09:11 AM
In the wake of his death, too many fell into the simplistic binary thinking that plagues our country and steamrolls politics ✔ I come not to praise Senator John McCain nor to bury him – plenty of people are taking care those things – but to describe him and our problems with complex people and complex descriptions ✔ If we want to be able to perceive and describe the world, our conversations have to have room for the occasional harmful acts of people we like and the beneficial acts of those we don’t



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